On the weekends, I bring you OS X Power Tips, which usually involve using the Terminal app and a command line to execute a feature or function of OS X that isn't normally exposed within the Mac's graphical user interface. If you're not big on Terminal, however, I'd like to bring your attention to some third-party apps that unlock a lot of these same features and more. The best news is for cheapskates: Some of these apps are free.
TinkerTool
Marcel Bresink's TinkerTool is a utility that gives you access to features and preferences built into the Mac that aren't obvious and that aren't accessible through System Preferences or tools in individual apps. There are a total of nine categories of apps and tools that TinkerTool manages: The Finder, Dock, general system settings, the Desktop, Applications, Fonts, Safari, iTunes, and QuickTime.
Jun 09, 2015 Best Mac Apps Best Mac apps for tweaking system settings: TinkerTool, Onyx, Cocktail, MacPilot Should you have to resort to the command line to change hidden preferences on OS X? Advanced SystemCare for Mac by IObit has not been developed yet, but all of its powerful functions can be replaced by the apps from this list with alternatives. You can enhance your computer's performance by using any of these programs. TinkerTool Version Overview: Find the right variant for your operating system. TinkerTool is also available in special versions for older generations of macOS, OS X and Mac OS X. Please use the following table to find the right application for you.
TinkerTool helps you access dozens of preferences that affect OS X system and app behavior, so if there are pet peeves of yours — for example, you hate the fact that Help windows are always in the foreground, or you'd really like to change the default fonts used in Safari, you can manage all these things (and much more) using TinkerTool.
MacMost Now 827: Using TinkerTool To Customize Your Mac. If you want to go beyond System Preferences and change other settings on your Mac, you can do so with the Terminal window. But TinkerTool makes it even easier by giving you a list of potential settings and a user interface to make the changes without typing.
Titanium Software's Onyx provides you with access to a lot of the same features and functionality that TinkerTool does, but it also gives you access to a lot more.
Onyx divides its activities into Maintenance, Cleaning, Automation, Utilities, Parameters, and Info. It also keeps track of its own actions in a log.
Maintenance lets you read and repair disk permissions; execute weekly maintenance scripts; rebuild caches; and more. Cleaning can delete caches used by the system; your web browser; fonts; and other features. Automation can force the execution of automatic scripts, while the Utilities feature delves in deep with main pages (the text-based help files included with many Unix utilities); showing and hiding disks and folders; managing screen sharing, network diagnostics and other tools; and more. Parameters lets you set a variety of features of commonly used apps.
There are specific versions of Onyx for each major release of OS X since 10.2 'Jaguar,' so make sure to download the one that's right for your Mac.
Cocktail is commercial software developed by Swedish developer Maintain: It's long been a standby for individuals and system admins at big companies alike. You can use it to run scripts, purge memory, clear caches, repair disk permissions, tweak network settings, and manage hidden settings of Apple apps including Safari, Mail, and iTunes.
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Cocktail is available as a downloadable demo; you must register and pay for it by its tenth launch or it deactivates itself. Family, business, and multipack licenses are available.
MacPilot sports a lot of the same features I've described in utilities elsewhere in this roundup, but adds a lot more too. Koingo Software says that MacPilot sports more than 1000 features designed to help tweak and customize your Mac use. You can download a trial version for free; student and household licenses are available, as well as business licenses.
There's also a MacPilot Lite version available for download from the Mac App Store, but Koingo had to extensively tailor it for release because of Apple's sandboxing restrictions for Mac App Store apps. Just go straight to the vendor's site for the latest version, unencumbered by Mac App Store restrictions.
![]() Your pick?
I've had my say. What am I leaving off the list that you think is an excellent choice for tweaking OS X? Let me know in the comments.
TinkerTool is a freeware application for macOS that allows the user to customise the system by exposing hidden preferences to a graphical user interface (GUI).[1] It is developed by German developer Marcel Bresink Software-Systeme. Its latest release is version 7.4.2, which is optimised for macOS Catalina and many features that came with it.[2]
Features[edit]
TinkerTool gives users access to hidden system and application preferences that Apple has built into macOS, but not integrated into GUI preferences menus. Although users can typically access these through Terminal operations, TinkerTool assembles them and provides a GUI similar to Apple’s System Preferences application for easier access.
By using Apple’s hidden preferences, the application only commits changes that are reversible and affect the preferences of the current user account. Administrative privileges or background processing are not required. The application also supports a reset option to reset all preferences to Apple's defaults, or to the state that existed before using the application.
History[edit]
Initially, TinkerTool worked with all versions of macOS. However, over the years, compatibility with particular versions of macOS was spun off into separate applications: TinkerTool Classic, TinkerTool Classic Generation 2, TinkerTool 4, TinkerTool 5, TinkerTool 6, and the current TinkerTool. Support therefore goes back to Mac OS X 10.1 Puma and later.[3]
Versions[edit]
TinkerTool versions are specific to versions of macOS and are not backward compatible. The program will not work correctly if used with an OS for which it was not designed.
Tinker Tools For Mac
The macOS Catalina (10.15) build is actively maintained. However, all previous versions in support of past operating systems are still available for download from the developer's website
See also[edit]Tinkertool For Mac 10.11References[edit]
External links[edit]Tinkertool Per Mac Download
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TinkerTool&oldid=947604277'
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